Jung Yong-hwa of the idol band CNBLUE will be leaving a cable TV show after the revelation that he received preferential treatment in graduate school admission, his agency said Wednesday.

"After much thought, Jung decided to voluntarily quit the program, feeling responsibility for today's controversy and hoping the issue would not hurt the show, and delivered the decision to the show's production team," FNC Entertainment said in a release.

"We once again deeply apologize for disappointing so many viewers of the program as well as its cast and producers."

Jung is one of the emcees for cable channel Olive TV's new talk show "Talkmon" along with Kang Ho-dong. The decision was made only two days after the first episode of the show hit the air on Monday.

Earlier on Wednesday, a local media reported that the singer was recently investigated by police for being admitted to the doctorate course of a graduate school at Seoul's Kyunghee University in 2016 without having an interview.

The singer confirmed the report and made a public apology for "causing trouble" on his Instagram account. (Yonhap)